About the Australian Rural Roads Group

Who we are

The ARRG was founded in June 2010 by a number of rural local governments from around Australia tired of dealing with the local road funding and maintenance challenges and seeing no answers to the problem forthcoming from higher governments.

The group’s focus is on productivity – how can more productive investments be made in rural local road networks when grant funding does not consider or reward productivity at all? How can rural local governments fund more efficient road investments with dwindling populations of rural ratepayers, and little or no access to car park, fines and land development revenue that urban councils can draw on?

The ARRG quickly established membership of all rural local governments in Australia which produced over $100 million in rural commodities each year. There were over 110 of these local governments around the country. Together they produce half of Australia’s total agricultural output, but they are left with a broken road funding and investment system. This group has now expanded.

All members share a simple message: ‘We represent productive communities, and we can be even more productive in future! But we need a better rural road funding system to get there!’

A commitment to policy excellence

Since its foundation, the group has published leading research and recommendations on structural reform of Australia’s road funding system. Most notably, its ideas have found strong and vocal support from Infrastructure Australia, the independent statutory body that advises the Australian Prime Minister, Premiers and Head of Local Government on important infrastructure policy reform and spending priorities

The ARRG’s membership is expanding all the time. It continues its commitment to research and publication of a better way forward for local road funding and management. Visit the publications section of this website to see completed work of the ARRG and see the News section to see the latest developments.